I have been writing for Forbes since 2005. Prior to that I covered the business beat for the New York Daily News. Because I've studied both finance and journalism, and because I like both numbers & analysis and sports, what's a more fun job than merging the two, writing about sports from the business side and from the stat geek/number crunching side? I have a BS in business from Boston College and a masters in business journalism from New York University.

The Draft That Almost Wrecked The NFL

Pittsburgh quarterback Dan Marino was part of a heralded NFL draft class in 1983. ( Wikipedia)

It’s draft time for the NFL, the perfect jumping off point for ESPNESPN to air its latest “30 for 30” documentary, a look at the league’s famous draft of 1983. It’s titled “From Elway to Marino,” after two Hall of Famers that bookended a group of six quarterbacks taken in the first round that year (Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason and Ken O’Brien were the others).

Maybe it should have been called “The Draft That Nearly Wrecked the NFL,” so one-sided did the league become in favor of the National Football Conference, whose teams took none of the six quarterbacks, in the years that followed.

A recent review in the L.A. Times portrays the ESPN piece as one that highlights the importance of getting that top quarterback, setting a precedent for future drafts. It’s based largely on a personal diary kept by agent Marvin Demoff, who represented both Marino and Elway and who told the Times that the draft “accentuated the idea that to be really relevant, teams needed a franchise quarterback. If you didn’t have a quarterback, it was like playing chess without a queen.”

Ok, it’s natural that the 1983 draft is remembered for six quarterbacks going in the first round, the first time that ever happened. But what gets missed is the painful lesson learned by those doing the drafting – you can get too pass happy, and really set yourself back in the process. All six QBs were drafted by AFC teams, the conference (or league, pre-merger) that had won 11 of the first 17 Super Bowls, including eight of nine from 1973 to 1981.

But the 1983 draft set up the conference as the weak sister to the more powerful NFC for more than a decade, threatening the league’s competitive balance and sending Super Bowl viewers to other channels. Beginning with the 1984-85 season, the NFC won the Super Bowl 13 consecutive times. Most of them were blowouts. The AFC’s problem, for the most part, wasn’t with the QBs themselves – Elway, Marino and Kelly are all deserving Hall of Famers, and O’Brien had a solid career in New York. But with its clubs mostly building around their new young guns, the AFC became the soft conference, filled with finesse teams that couldn’t compete in the trenches against physical NFC clubs like the Redskins, 49ers, Bears and Giants. Fans noticed: after the Chicago-New England matchup in 1986 became the first Super Bowl to draw 90 million viewers, the game failed to draw that many again until 1996, thanks to a close game between two iconic franchises, the Steelers and Cowboys.

During the ill-fated stretch, Elway (Denver), Marino (Miami), Eason (New England) and Kelly (Buffalo) combined to go 0-for-9 in the big game, while O’Brien and Blackledge (a bust in Kansas City) never made it. It was Elway who finally broke the streak as an older veteran in 1998 when the Broncos knocked off Green Bay. He’d add another ring the following year before retiring.

Since Denver snapped the skid, the Super Bowl has featured many more close games than it used to, with the AFC winning 10 of 16. Viewership has grown to record levels.

Maybe the ’83 draft should be remembered for what the NFC clubs did to help build championships. Washington drafted Darrell Green, a cornerback out of Texas A&I who became a Hall of Famer and won two Super Bowls. The Bears selected offensive lineman Jimbo Covert, who blocked for Walter Payton, won a Super Bowl, and was ultimately named to the All-Decade Team of the 1980s. The defensive-minded Giants took Terry Kinard, a defensive back from Clemson who started for their 1986-87 team that routed Elway and the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Dallas went for defensive end Jim Jeffcoat, who lasted 12 seasons with the team, including five with 10-or-more quarterback sacks, and won two rings.

And as players go, the biggest story of the 1983 draft: the San Francisco 49ers, without a first round pick that year, stole dynamic running back Roger Craig in the second round out of the University of Nebraska with the 49th pick. All Craig did was go on to become one the great dual threat backs in NFL history, the first to ever surpass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. He wound up a four-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion with the Niners.

As Demoff says, people do continue to talk about the ’83 draft 30 years later. Just not nearly as much as they would be had it actually finished the job of breaking the league in half.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.